Though they argued that the book was "comprehensive", Pacific Affairs lamented a lack of demographic details, such as changes in the birth and death rates, life expectancy, and epidemiology, which would have given The Making of Modern Japan a "human dimension" that it otherwise lacked. The English Historical Review described the book as "one of the largest, and certainly one of the best" narrative histories of Japan, giving particular praise to its accessible style and tone, and its attention to how changes in Japan affected its neighboring countries. Monumenta Nipponica called The Making of Modern Japan a "reliable, solid, and authoritative interpretation of Japan's recent past", but also noted that Jansen sometimes made "broad judgements" that needed further scrutiny. The book details the history of Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 up until 2000, analysing the changes in Japan's economic policies, education, military, and both high and low culture. The Making of Modern Japan is the last work by American author Marius Jansen, who died one week after the book was published. The Making of Modern Japan is traditional history at its most essential, both good and bad. Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese. The Making of Modern Japan is a 2000 history book by Marius Jansen.
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Warning: Contains a slew of misunderstandings, one cheating, jealous ex, and steamy sex scenes between two guys who fall accidentally in love.Įrin: Well, from the blurb I should have known this book wouldn’t be for me. But pretending is hard, when all Max wants is for the lie to be the truth. One white lie later, Max attends Karson’s tenth annual high-school reunion as his “boyfriend” to keep his ex away. Yet long after their romp in the bar bathroom, Karson still wants Max-maybe enough to break his own rules.Īs Max and Karson struggle to sort out their complicated non-relationship, Karson’s ex resurfaces in full win-him-back mode. Max had been looking for a forever love, but Karson’s so hot, forever can wait.Įver since his cheating ex broke his heart, Karson’s had rules. Stuck at a co-workers retirement party, Max prepares himself for a long, boring night-until a guy across the bar with an intense brown gaze and a dangerous smirk offers some mutual gratification in the bathroom. If “I love you” is a lie, why does it feel so much like the truth? Genres: Contemporary Romance, Fake Relationship to More, M/M Romance, One Night to More, Player Falls in Love Published by Samhain Publishing on September 8, 2015 Then there was Framed the following year, the author’s tale of a dying North Welsh community brought to life through an appreciation of art. In 2004 there was Millions, adapted from his own screenplay on the advice of the film’s director (and Frank’s good friend) Danny Boyle, a touching and funny story of two brothers who find a bag of money and work out how best to dispose of it. Lots of people who know about my love for children’s lit will have heard me talk in glowing terms about the work of Frank Cottrell Boyce, the respected film scriptwriter who turned to fiction with such success.Īsk me about my favourite contemporary children’s books and I’ll no doubt mention his first three novels. Tracked Down: Frank Cottrell Boyce (and some – like this blogger – might call him elusive) The worst evil that might befall you.Įlizabeth is a superb story of a fierce, ferocious and confident woman that knows what she wants. Racism and cruelty reign in Flower Garden, as a young mother’s decision to hire a black man to work in her garden brands her as an ”abomination” and ostracize her because of a frustrated housewife’s jealousy. In The Witch – one of the most terrifying stories by Jackson- a creepy passenger confesses his crime to a young boy and his mother. In Like Mother Used to Make, the roles are reversed as two strange guests cause a young man to abandon his home. In The Daemon Lover, a woman desperately searches for her fiance only to discover that the entire city has actually seen him getting away from her. ”The only town lights were the street lights, the lights in the all-night lunchstand across the street, and the one remaining counter lamp in the bus station where the girl sat in the ticket office with her hat and coat on, only waiting for the New York bus to leave before she went home to bed.” Keegan has written a novel in large part about us. After he encounters an abused woman there, he must decide whether to help her at the expense of his family’s well-being.įew readers of Small Things Like These can be certain they would reach the same decision Furlong does. The plot follows Bill Furlong, a New Ross family man and merchant who is troubled as he becomes aware of what occurs in the local Magdalen laundry. Yet the subject of the novel is often painful. Keegan’s short novel, which could just as well be called a long short story, is stylistically lovely and imbued with her passion for seeing. In the town of New Ross, chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before disappearing along the quays, and soon the River Barrow, dark as stout, swelled up with rain. Then the clocks went back the hour and the long November winds came in and blew, and stripped the trees bare. When she was a teenager, Joan Didion studied the opening to Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, a paragraph of “four deceptively simple sentences, 126 words, the arrangement of which remains as mysterious and thrilling to me now as it did when I first read them.” A young writer today could study with similar pleasure the opening paragraph of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, a novel set in a 20th century town that includes a Magdalen laundry, one of Ireland’s imprisoning institutions for unwed mothers: Xiong has crafted a well-researched journey through a fascinating man in Chinese history. Despite the heavy use of assassinations, executions, and bloody battles, the ultimate goal is ever present. The story alternates between the Emperor’s life and the important people of each battle or event.Ī sense of upheaval is clear with every page, and Tang Taizong’s desire to unite China under peaceful rule is fascinating to follow. He was gifted the title of Heavenly Khan by Central and North Asia for his steadfast rule, dedication to the people, and ability to maintain a period of peace. Heavenly Khan is the story of the Emperor’s life from inheriting the dynasty from his father to the so-called Last War. Most importantly, he managed to keep a level head and heeded his council. Interesting for an Emperor of the time, Emperor Tang Taizong was benevolent and tolerant of most religion. Emperor Tang Taizong ruled during the 7th Century, a time of unrest and chaos for China. A new historical legend to stand alongside Alexander the Great and Napoleon. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. And we’re actually offered two mysteries: a rape trial which is the subject of Rachel’s podcast and a death from 25 years earlier.Īfter the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name-and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. This book, which I really enjoyed, is very plot driven. Interestingly, though I liked our lead character Rachel, Goldin doesn’t give us a lot of information about her. For me it also offered a sense of sad wistfulness, a sense of injustice. The Night Swim is more about human nature – about people and the things we do. The first was very much domestic noir the second a suspenseful thriller and here there’s less of a sense of impending doom. Interestingly all three books have felt kinda different. Her debut The Girl in Kellers Way was published in 2017 and The Escape Room in 2018. This is the third novel I’ve read by former journalist Megan Goldin. She has been in beauty pageants her whole life and plans on being a model. Kendra Mathieson: Kendra is the ex-girlfriend of Conner Sykes.She is trying to live up to her parents' expectations while at the same time struggling with her sexuality. Cara Sykes: Cara is the twin of Conner Sykes.And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand.Įveryone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?" Characters To score his perfect home run-on the field and off-Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. Kendra covets the perfect face and body-no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.Ĭara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. "Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. Like all of Ellen Hopkin's works, the novel is unusual for its free verse format. Perfect is a young adult novel written by American author Ellen Hopkins. Justice Edward Mansfield wrote for the now-unanimous court that Friday's decision will "restore the law as it existed in this state before 2017." But on Friday, the court, which has seen more than 50% turnover since 2017, held that decision and all its successor cases were decided wrongly. The court in that case ruled that such lawsuits were permissible, even without legislative authorization. In that case, the court considered what to do with violations of Iowa constitutional rights for which no statute, such as the Iowa Civil Rights Act or Iowa Tort Claims Act, explicitly authorized lawsuits against the state. Six years after ruling Iowans could bring suit against the state over violations of their state constitutional rights, the Iowa Supreme Court reversed itself Friday, holding that plaintiffs can seek damages for constitutional violations only where specifically permitted by the Legislature.įriday's decision, which involved an Iowa City-area garbage truck driver arrested for refusing to cooperate in a police inspection of his truck, overturns the 2017 decision known as Godfrey II. They opened a whole new world to me, the world not just of the ship in all its extraordinary and intricate detail – for Tudor warships were at the cutting edge of technical and engineering knowledge – but, and, for me even more compellingly, the world of the men who served on board the ship.įor, along with the Mary Rose, divers working in the often murky and dangerous conditions have also recovered from beneath the silt, over the years, probably the best collection of Tudor artefacts anywhere in the world. Having written the first, outline draft of the story, I visited the Mary Rose Museum again and made contact with its expert and devoted staff. I had seen, on television, the remains of the ship lifted from the seabed in 1982, and had visited it in Portsmouth – visible only through a window at a distance, for the timbers had to be sprayed constantly with water and chemicals to preserve them. I knew of course that the ship had sunk while sailing out to meet the French warships on a hot July day and that the lower half of the ship had been preserved, the silt at the bottom of the Solent serving to limit decay. When I conceived the idea of a Shardlake novel where the threads of the story would converge on board Henry VIII’s warship Mary Rose as it prepared to sail out to do battle with the approaching French fleet in July 1545, I had little idea of the sheer scale of the material that was available in Portsmouth. |